Popular Uprising Against Barrick Gold in Tanzania sparked by killing of localby Sakura Saunders, ProtestBarrick.netDecember 14th, 2008Why would "criminals" set fire to millions worth in mine equipment?
How was it that these "intruders" had an estimated 3,000 people backing them up?
In what appears to be a spontaneous civilian movement against Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold miner, thousands of people invaded Barrick`s North Mara Gold Mine this week in Tarime District and destroyed equipment worth $15 million.

IRAQ: Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders
by JAMES GLANZ and T. CHRISTIAN MILLER, The New York TimesDecember 13th, 2008An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

US: Plea by Blackwater Guard Helps Indict Othersby GINGER THOMPSON and JAMES RISEN, New York Times December 9th, 2008On Monday, the Justice Department unsealed its case against five Blackwater private security guards, built largely around testimony from a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad traffic circle.

US: One Man’s Military-Industrial-Media Complex by DAVID BARSTOW, The New York TimesNovember 29th, 2008The company, Defense Solutions, sought the services of a retired general with national stature, someone who could open doors at the highest levels of government and help it win a huge prize: the right to supply Iraq with thousands of armored vehicles.

CANADA/IRAQ: Drill, Garner, Drillby Anthony Fenton, Mother Jones November 24th, 2008In the history of the Iraq War, one name is perhaps synonymous with the collapse of the Bush administration's hopes for a post-Saddam world: Retired Lt. General Jay M. Garner, who served as the first post-war administrator. This year, he and a small group of former US military leaders, officials, and lobbyists have quietly used their Kurdistan connections to help Canadian companies access some of the region's richest oil fields.